musings of an adoptive mama of one little tot from China and another on the way.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Cleft Palate Surgery

My son's cleft palate surgery was on Tuesday morning. The day before, I couldn't help but pity our son, as I thought, "he has no idea what tomorrow will bring." Though I was more than obliged to provide all of his favorite foods on Monday, including 3 pancakes for breakfast, chicken and sweet potato fries for lunch, and 3 servings of lasagna for dinner...thata' boy.

Tuesday morning, my husband and I sat with our rather cheerful son who had managed to somehow not think about breakfast, so it was that much harder when he, so cheerful, went in the OR for surgery. The surgery was from about 9:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. The nurse called us from the OR twice to give us an update and let us know that things were going great.

When he came out of surgery we heard him crying, and the doc lead us into the recovery room. He looked so pitiful. I couldn't help but cry thinking that he had been through this kind of surgery once before - but in China and with no parents there to hold his hand and sit with him while the anesthesia wore off and the pain mounted. Such a brave little boy.

The surgeon said that the surgery went great, and that he had great muscles and tissues with which to construct the palate. He had quite a bit of bleeding and was drugged for most of the day, so the first day was difficult - miserable in fact. He slept well the first night given what he had endured that day, though I'm sure it was because of the morphine. The next morning after the surgeon came to remove the stitch in his tongue and clean out his mouth, he was a new person. He was eating and drinking, laughing and watching his favorite movies. So well, actually, that we were able to come home that afternoon.

Funny to think that a boy born in China, living in an orphanage with a special need now lives in America, has a family who loves him dearly, and no longer has a special need.

7 comments:

We also adopted a little boy from China with cleft lip and palate. We brought him home in 2007 when he was 14 months old, and he had all his repairs in America. I know what you are going through, and love to "meet" other families who adopted little boys from China with clefts! You can read more about our son - who has been home for almost 4 years now! - at our blog: www.pletcher5journey.blogspot.com

After doing research I found that it's amazing how little time and money is actually costs to fix a Cleft palette and lips surgery...and so sad how many children are disregarded when born with the defect. Organizations such as Smile Train provide free life changing surgery to children all over the world...they raise about $60million a year to do so...what a beautiful cause. Here is the latest on the Smile Train Merger